Have you ever gotten off route while soloing?

Just as the title implies. Not a topic I have heard much about, but I assume some have some decent stories on the subject.

To me, soloing is completely calculated during the climb and nothing feels crazy or "heartstopping" while on the line. However, I imagine this all shatters once a climber loses sight of the 5.8 he was on, and finds himself on a 5.11 slab.

This same question could be applied to inobvious trad climbing. Wander up a face to what looks like decent pro, find yourself runout on tiny crimps.

Please share!

I have done trad in some areas without guide books or really crappy ones and have later found out the route I thought I was on wasn't the one I was on. Never ran into a 5.11 when i thought I was suppose to be on a 5.8 though. I have rapped down from some trees when I got up the first few pitches and started questioning the route I was on.

That is half the fun of trad imo for easier 5.6 or easier routes because there is no line you have to follow for bolts. If you want to just relax and climb go get on something easy and make your own strange wandering route. I find most things 5.8+ and even alot of 5.7s you almost have to follow a certain path and they are harder to get off route.

I have seen people I have been climbing with get off route more because there was water running down through the normal crack that I would expect to have climbed so they kinda ended up climbing the face to the side of it instead.

Everyone I know who free solos have only free soloed stuff well below their abilities or in the case of multi pitch they have climbed multi times and know every move of the route.

Prob the most surprising off route soloing experience I had was getting off route on Cathedral Peak in Yosemite...a very easy climb to solo...the idea was to solo Cathedral in the morning and then do the west pillar direct route on Eichorn's Pinnacle. Eichorn being the much more serious objective from a solo perspective followed up by down climbing the north face, I had studied the beta for in advance but had sort of ignored anything about Cathedral. I had never been on either route, and it was my first time even back there.

I wanted to beat any potential crowds on Cathedral, so I got up there early. I assumed, since it gets climbed so often, that the line would be obvious and it was once you got on it..but somehow at the base, I started way too far left...climbed up these overlapping slabs, thinking all the while about what they would be like to down climb if I had started the route wrong. I finally reached this dirty roof you had to pull with a hand jam. I stuck my hand in dirty, wet muck....and realized then there was no way this was the common southeast buttress route.

By then, the first party of the day showed up to start way to the right....and they got the free entertainment of watching me down climb those slabs...then of course I had to ask to pass them. I don't know what they thought...but I figured they could not imagine someone soloing who did not know where the hell he was going. Making those blind down climbing moves on those overlapping slabs was more interesting than anything on Eichorn's direct route that day.

Dow Williams wrote: ...Eichorn being the much more serious objective from a solo perspective followed up by down climbing the north face...

Down-soloing Eichhorn in five-tennies was one of the scariest things I've ever done without a rope. I've done Cathedral a few times since, but never tagged Eichorn again.

Since I rarely solo stuff I'm not sure of, I've only gotten off-route once, on some 4000' 5.2 in the Sierra whose name eludes me now. Patter the crag dog soloed it with us. It was easier ground up high, so we were being casual & not paying enough attention, and got waaaaaay off route, to the point I thought we were going to have to find our way to the top & down in the dark. We eventually found the top & got down by dark, much to Patter's enjoyment.

I've gotten off-route on long easy solos. And down-climbed out of it. The biggest was on the Watzmann Ostwand (largest wall in the eastern Alps). Fortunately I saw some other parties, so after down-climbing a ways, I traversed over and joined with one of them, another guy soloing.

When I'm climbing single-pitch crag stuff, I spend at least 25% of my time practicing down-climbing on rope belay. When using a bolt anchor, instead of rappelling or getting lowered on the rope, often I down-climb and then pull the rope -- so less wear on the anchor, less wear on my rope.

With a single-pitch Trad anchor, doing an "extra" half-lap down-climbing is a good way to efficiently leverage the time and hassle of protecting the climbing and building the anchor.

For me, down-climbing is another form of climbing achievement. Sometimes I record my "first fully-free down-climb" of a specific route even after I've climbed up it several times previously.

I remember one half-pitch route in southeast France, I said to Sharon, "This is the most fun down-climbing I've done". So I down-climbed it three times.

Ken

Most memorable off-route experience was on the Durrance route on Symmetry Spire, in the Tetons. Rapped to back off, got back on route, then re-rapped from higher on-route to retrieve my bail anchor, finished the climb.

Sadly, many years later a friend died while apparently off route on the SW Ridge of Symmetry.

Dow - jinx! I got off route on Cathedral the exact same way ... started way too far left & quickly got into steep choss ... made it down somehow & called it a day ...

The other problem with getting off route is sometimes the correct line is one of the few areas on the wall that has reasonably sound rock -- or at least rock that's been tested recently by many other parties, who broke things off before you arrived.

The moves off-route might not be any harder than on the correct route -- but perhaps hard enough so you it's difficult to maintain discipline and focus in checking each hold. Then something pulls out or breaks.

Dylan Randall wrote:To me, soloing is completely calculated during the climb and nothing feels crazy or "heartstopping" while on the line.

I like soloing long routes. For me the point is not to prove how hard a difficulty I can dare to climb without a rope. Rather just to keep moving without waiting for belaying. On a long route, no way it can be anything like "completely calculated".

Sometimes if I hear that the upper section might have tricky route-finding, I make that long route into a "project". Like on a previous day I will hike up the descent route and down-climb the upper section. I also might do this if a route has two crux sections, so I'm afraid I might succeed on the lower crux but not feel comfortable doing the upper crux -- so I check out the upper section first on a different day (or different year).

Another problem on a long route is when I get way higher on the route, I feel like psychologically I can't down-climb it -- not because of any single sequence I remember which I might fail on, but the total amount makes me feel that I might blow a down-climb move somewhere. Or I might not recognize the route in the downward direction.
But really I've done rather long down-climbs before, even on-sight. So mostly it's a psychological mode of feeling that I "must" keep going upward.

The danger is that I might then be unconsciously blocking the recognition that I've gotten off-route.

Ken

kenr wrote: So mostly it's a psychological mode of feeling that I "must" keep going upward.

This is just what I mean when I said "completely calculated". I didn't mean the logistics of the climb must work out perfectly, but rather every move must be perfect as to be sure I don't fall. This feeling is typically driven by that "must keep going upward" thought you mentioned.

Good stories everyone! Glad to hear from a variety of locations as well.

Has anyone ever climbed the 1st Flatiron the same twice? Does that count as offroute?

I've done some onsight free-soloing that I've stopped on a ledge to whip out a topo and check to see if I was OK. I haven't gotten off route yet and my free solo days are behind me.

Funny thing, I got off route and took a huge fall on a route I'd soloed onsight maybe a month or two prior with no issues.

I got off route soloing royal arches. It was always choose your own adventure up there so I took a arching up and right wide crack assuming i could link it back left. Started saying my prayers when it widened into insecure 9+ under clinging that I couldn't reverse. That turned into a section of grass clump pulling on faith to a bail sling graveyard. From there I had to climb/slide back down and left on slabs with ledges picked out below that I might be able to run and crash into if I fell (so as not to guarantee death). I made it back on route with no problems.

Another time onsight soloing around pie shop in s. Lake Tahoe, I tried a crack to seam over a sloped ledge. The seam blanked out in some kitty litter slab and the feet blew. Landed on the ledge on my feet and controlled the fall. Thought I was fine till I closed my teeth together and felt my cheek bone move. The impact smashed it into my knee. Some titanium and it's fine.

Lessons were obvious. Don't climb up what you can't climb down and rethink your rock quality. not soloing has been working pretty well too.

I think that they call it OSFSFA. Edit to include the tennis shoes OSFSFAIT

Many years ago I went up to solo the Satan's Slab route. It looked like a reasonable onsight. When I got to the roof/slot on pitch 2 it seemed unattractive, so I moved out to the left. Mistake. Found myself with 5.10 face climbing (eventually on the West side of the formation) and had a tough time regaining the ridge and finishing the route. When I went back, the roof turned out to be a two-move problem that made a lot more sense.

There may be a couple more, but that day remains strong in memory.